Shoppers React to JCPenney Closing Stores in Our Area

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MUNCY TOWNSHIP -- People walked around the Lycoming Mall in Muncy Township Friday with JCPenney shopping bags. It's one of the mall's anchor stores.

"It's definitely one of my first choices to go and get clothes and discounts and deals on things I use every day," said Tricia Hojnowski of Canton.

But people will not be able to shop at this store much longer, JCPenney announced it is closing 138 stores, including three in our area. The Lycoming Mall's store is one of them.

The other stores are near Towanda in Bradford County and in the Columbia Mall near Bloomsburg.

"It kind of hurts to think that one of the stores I go to is not going to be there in the future to go to," Hojnowski added.

"We'll miss it. It's a great store to buy clothes for even your kids and stuff," said Danielle Wagner of Loganton.

According to a news release from JCPenney, the closures will affect around 5,000 employees. Some people Newswatch 16 spoke with think the store is closing because shopping is moving in a different direction.

"It's kind of sad, but I think a lot of people shop online, and it's a lot more convenient," Rebecca Yablonski of Bloomsburg said.

"A lot of people are doing online shopping and less in stores," said Wagner.

"To see the people in Macy's today, and they work there and you could tell they felt bad," said Yablonski.

The Macy's store at the Lycoming Mall closes Sunday. As for JCPenney, most of the stores are closing in June with the liquidation process starting next month. Mall officials would not say if that is true for the store in the Lycoming Mall as well.

5 comments

Silverfish Imperetrix

Set for life

Next the malls will be dropping out of business. Then municipalities will be crying about loss of tax base dollars. Only way to make a fair playing field is to tax online sales. Otherwise major breaks need to be given to brick in mortar to reduce operational costs.

Morgan

You don’t evolve…you die. Montgomery Wards, K-Mart, Sears, Penney’s will all be footnotes in retail because they didn’t get competitive. People can order on-line, get free shipping, no sales tax on many items and shop the entire country, not just a mall location. Save gas, time, wear and tear…not much of a comparison. Brick & mortar locations knew they were in trouble ten eyars ago and failed to adapt. Sorry. Buh-bye.